Biography

Ted Halstead, New America’s founder, served as the institution’s first president and CEO from its inception in 1999 until September, 2007. New America Foundation is a public policy institute whose purpose is to bring new voices and new ideas to the fore of America’s public discourse. Described by The Washington Post as “The Think Tank of Generation Next,” and by The Economist as housing “the brightest American thinkers under 40,” the New America Foundation relies on a venture capital approach to invest in outstanding individuals and policy ideas that transcend the conventional political spectrum.

Halstead is a frequent public speaker and media commentator on a wide range of public policy issues, and has appeared as a guest on CNN, Nightline with Ted Koppel, ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, C-SPAN and NPR. He has published broadly, including two cover stories in The Atlantic Monthly and numerous opinion articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. He is co-author with Michael Lind of a widely acclaimed book, The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics, and editor of The Real State of The Union.

Previously, Halstead was Executive Director of Redefining Progress, another nonprofit public policy organization which he founded – at the age of 25 – in order to promote new approaches to economic and environmental policy. This organization is best known for developing a comprehensive alternative to the GDP that better accounts for a nation’s social and environmental well-being and for advocating new approaches to tax policy that would create more jobs and less pollution by taxing waste instead of work.

Halstead is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was previously a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, and received his Master’s Degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Montgomery Fellow. Halstead was recently appointed as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Topics

The Future of American Politics: The Radical Center

Generational Politics: A Politics for Generation X

The Next Social Contract: How to Rethink the Relationship Between Employees and Employers

Unlike other speakers bureaus, we have content specialists that have a unique understanding of each market they serve. Our experienced, attentive, and knowledgeable agents are the best at creatively pairing the right speakers with the right programs to ultimately create a remarkable event.